How to learn the Chinese language fast and
efficiently? Dr. Deborah Fallows’ new book “Dreaming
in Chinese” may prove to be a good answer. How to help American learners of
Chinese with some tips on mastering the Chinese language so they can learn it
better? The CIVU’s first bimonthly lecture of 2011 served this purpose.

On the evening of February 3, 2011, which
happened to the first day of the first lunar month of the Chinese Year of the
Rabbit, Valparaiso citizens, CIVU students, VU faculty and students who studied
Chinese, leaders and teachers from the Confucius Classroom at Culver Academies,
the principal and Chinese teacher from New Prairie Middle School—a group of
more than 40 guests—attended the CIVU’s well-planned lecture by Dr. Deborah
Fallows on her book Dreaming in Chinese,
which reminds one of Chinese writer GUO Xiaolu’s narration of her experiences
in learning the English language in her book “A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers” published by
Doubleday in 2007.

Dr. Fallows began her lecture by sharing how
she’d prepared herself for her trip to China, particularly in arming herself
with what she could learn about the ancient yet fresh (to her), and somewhat
mysterious, Chinese language. Upon settling down in China, however, she was
dismayed to find what she’d learned from her Chinese classes was way different
from what she encountered when hearing the laobaixing
(common folk) speaking in the streets. She was baffled by the four tones of the
Chinese language, which is by no means similar to any alphabetic language like
English. The four tones of each character, she said, manipulate the choices and
combinations of characters and further define the meaning of a character,
expression or sentence.

As a Harvard Ph. D. in linguistics, Fallows
advocates learning Chinese in situations as real as possible, such as talking with
local people and learning from their live language. As a tip for the audience,
she analyzed the differences in cognition of space between English and Chinese,
taking descriptions of orientation as an example. Whereas English takes north and
south as the basic axis, Chinese bases its spatial expressions mainly on east
and west. Examples suffice in English expressions like north-east, south-east,
north-west and south-west, and in Chinese expressions such as东北(east-north)、东南(east-south)、西北(west-north)、西南(west-south).
Another difference lies in the fact that English spatial (and temporal)
expressions range from smaller to bigger units, and Chinese in the other way
round. Such differences, she remarked, indicate the difference in perspectives
of cognition of the two languages.

Apart from sharing her experiences in, and
understanding of, the Chinese language, Dr. Fallows also touched upon the
differences in enthusiasm for, and emphasis on, foreign languages—in this case,
English and Chinese—in both countries. “Chinese students have much more sustainable
enthusiasm for English than American students do for Chinese,” she commented, “and
China lays much more emphasis on English language teaching than the US does on
Chinese language teaching.”

Her lecture, like her book, was full of humor
and interaction. Mr. Walt Breitinger, an entrepreneur from Valparaiso,
commented: “From your experience, I’m inclined to believe we should work more to
help make Chinese a foreign language in our schools here in Valpo. The school
where my three sons graduated didn’t and doesn’t offer Chinese, which is the
national language of a country that is fastest-growing and has probably the
biggest potential. I don’t wish today’s kids to repeat my sons’ regrets.”

Deborah Fallows and her husband, James
Fallows, a national correspondent for
The Atlantic, had stayed in
Shanghai and Beijing for three years, and had travelled to many places in
China. Her book was published by Walker & Co., New York in 2010. Professor
Laura D. Tyson of Global Management, Haas School of Business, University of
California at Berkeley compliments: “Dreaming
in Chinese is original, entertaining, gracefully written, and provides
insights into life and culture in contemporary China… This is a terrific book
for anyone who wants to improve their understanding of this extraordinary
country.” David Ignatius, Columnist for The
Washington Post, and author of “Body
of Lies”, comments: “The joy of this book is its sense of humor and
adventure. I can’t think of a better book for someone who wants to understand
the lovable, infuriating, and hilarious country that is China.”

The lecture was moderated by Professor Zhimin
Lin, Board Member of the CIVU, and Chair of the Chinese and Japanese Studies
Program. The following morning, Dr. Fallows was invited to the CIVU house for a
discussion, at which she shared her opinions on language learning and teaching with
Professors MENG Jianyun and LIU Jiangang, the CIVU’s Director and Associate
Director respectively, and with CIVU Chinese language professors HE Jun, MING
Liang and ZHANG Rong. Later, she offered three more presentations for more than
120 VU students majoring in International Commerce and Policy, Master of Arts
in Chinese Studies, and Chinese and Japanese Studies, at which she autographed
for her readers and was interviewed by local media people.